Birthdays & Breaking Down Walls
by xoxo Cherie
Summary: Ally Dawson was good at a lot of things. However there were some things she just wasn't very good at. And handling her alcohol was one of them. On her twenty-first birthday she ends up getting more than just her first drink and a bad hangover. It's a birthday she'll never forget (assuming the alcohol doesn't make her forget first). Future-fic. One-shot.


**Disclaimer: I do not own _Austin & Ally._**

* * *

Ally Dawson was good at a lot of things. She was an amazingly talented singer and songwriter. She was really good at baking. She could classify every type of cloud. She had amazing handwriting (thanks to a stint at calligraphy camp). She could take on just about any kind of craft project. She loved to read anything and everything. But there were some things that Ally Dawson wasn't very good at. And handling her alcohol was one of them.

Granted, it was her twenty-first birthday and she had never had a drink before tonight. Being the youngest (and most responsible) out of all her friends had kept her away from alcohol in the past. But tonight, she had promised herself (and her friends) that she'd let loose and finally have her first drink… which quickly turned into her second, third, and _fourth_ drinks.

"_Whoo!"_ Ally bounced up and down on the dance floor, the fruity drink in her hand threatening to spill over the rim of the glass. "This is so much _fun!"_ she said, her words slurring together a bit.

To her friends' surprise, Ally hadn't shown even the slightest bit of fatigue. They'd been at the club for almost three hours and it was already well past midnight.

"Whoa there, Ally. Why don't I take that?" Austin grabbed the glass from her hand and downed the little bit left before she could finish it. He hadn't planned on drinking that much tonight, trying to stay sober for Ally's sake, but he was afraid she was going to go overboard if he didn't intervene. And he did _not_ want to haul a passed-out Ally Dawson back home.

"_Hey!_ I wasn't done with that!" Ally aimed a halfhearted punch at Austin's chest, but her alcohol-addled head made her miss. Instead, she lost her balance after throwing herself a little too hard into the punch, but instead of crashing head first onto the floor, she felt Austin catch her.

"Sorry, I was really thirsty," he replied lightly. "Hey, why don't we head home? I think we're all partied-out."

"_What?_ But the party's just getting started! I'm twenty one!" .

Austin laughed at her tipsy giddiness. "I hate to break it to you, Ally, but it's already past one o'clock. You're birthday is over."

She shrugged her shoulders in response. "That's okay. I'm still twenty-one for another three hundred sixty-four days!" she exclaimed animatedly. "We can party until my twenty-second birthday! Whoo!"

He argued with her and continued to try and pull her off the dance floor, but Ally wasn't going to budge. He finally gave in and made his way back to the bar where Trish and Dez were sitting, making sure to keep one eye on her as he walked back.

"She's not moving."

"Well that much is obvious," Trish said, leaning her head against her hand. "Each of us has tried to get her to go home. _Twice_. Either we need to get more drinks in her and knock her out, or drag her out of here."

The three of them watched as Ally danced excitedly. Austin couldn't tell if she was better or worse than when she danced while she was sober. The thought made him smile.

"Yeah. I'm starting to regret telling her to have some fun tonight," Dez said, sighing tiredly. "I'm getting sleepy and I've only finished one drink. How is she still dancing like that?"

Trish nodded in agreement. "I don't know, but if we don't leave soon, I'm going to fall asleep here."

"Why don't you guys get out of here?" Austin asked, turning towards the pair. "I can take Ally home."

Trish perked up at his offer. "Really? Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Austin waved a hand at them, "it's no big deal. And I'm not even that tired. It's okay. I can manage for another hour or two."

"Thanks, man," Dez replied, "we totally owe you for this."

"No problem. I'll see you guys later.

He watched as Trish and Dez left the club before realizing that he'd stopped watching Ally. His eyes frantically searched for the brunette with eccentric dance moves, but when he couldn't find her he began to panic. His eyes scanned the dancing crowd of people again, and his eye finally caught the sparkly red dress she was wearing. He realized with a start that the reason he had had a difficult time finding her the first time was because she was dancing with someone. Some _guy_. And this guy was standing a little too close and his hands were sitting a little too low on Ally's hips for his liking.

Austin sped his way through the dancing bodies and finally made it to Ally's side, prying the random guy's hands off of her and shoving them away.

"_Dude! _What the hell?" The (drunk) guy got into Austin's face, obviously angry that someone had taken away is dance partner.

"Go find someone else to dance with," Austin spat out, his jaw tightening.

The guy tried to stand his ground, but it looked like he was having a hard time considering how intoxicated he was. He kept swaying from side to side. Austin continued to glare at him, daring him to make a move.

Finally, the drunk guy gave in, mumbling under his breath, "So not worth it," before stumbling away.

Austin shot him one last dirty look and turned to face Ally, who had her arms crossed and what he guessed was supposed to be a serious look on her face, but because she'd had so much to drink, she couldn't pull it off quite the way she wanted to. He thought it was adorable.

"Austin, I just wanted to dance."

He mirrored her, crossing his arms too. "Well, I don't think that guy 'just wanted to dance.' He was a sleaze. I'm trying to protect you."

"But I don't need protecting!"

"Yeah, you do! There are probably tons of guys here that would take advantage of you as soon as they had a chance." He rubbed his hands over his face. "Can't you just dance by yourself? Without creepy guys all over you?"

She pouted in a very un-Ally-like way, and if he weren't so tired and frustrated, he'd be distracted by how cute she was.

"It's not fun when you're dancing alone."

"Then why don't we get you home? Aren't you tired?"

Ally shook her head. "Dance with me."

He was caught off guard by her sudden demand. Usually, Ally would politely ask if she needed something, not say it outright.

"Ally-"

"Please, Austin? Just one dance?"

He wanted to say no. He wanted to tell her that it was time to leave. But he couldn't win against Ally's puppy-dog eyes. He could never say no to her anyways. And if he was being completely honest with himself, he wanted to dance with her too.

"Fine," he relented, "but just one dance." The happy look on her face made saying yes totally worth it.

He wrapped his arms around her waist, settling his hands at the small of her back. Her arms were around his neck and she rested her cheek against his chest. He'd always been taller than her and she liked being able to curl into him. He ignored the erratic thumping of his heart at their sudden proximity.

The song that was playing wasn't really a slow song, but he didn't care. They swayed together to his own beat as he hummed one of their songs. The pair had been dancing in silence when Ally spoke up again.

"This reminds me of prom," she giggled.

Austin let out a small laugh too. "Yeah, it kind of does."

He thought back to their senior year of high school. Had it really been three years since then? Prom night had ended up being a disaster. The limo was late, their dinner reservations got mixed up, and Ally's date ended up ditching halfway through the night, while his date began dancing with the captain of the football team. He and Ally spent most of the night sitting and acting pretty miserable before he took matters into his own hands and asked her to dance. They danced together for the rest of the night. He was sure he had a lot more fun with Ally than he would've had with his date. The thought made him smile again.

"I wanted you to ask me to prom."

Austin stopped swaying, caught off guard for a second time. _"What?"_

"I wanted to be your prom date," she said, not taking her head off of his chest. "And I thought you were going to ask me, so I kept waiting for you to do it, but then you asked Rachel."

Her sudden confession left him speechless. The only thing he could manage to say was, "Oh."

When he didn't make to say anything else, she continued. "I thought I was going to go to prom by myself, then Trish set me up with Tyler. But that ended up being a bust."

Austin finally found his voice again. "He was a jerk," he agreed. "But we ended up having a good time, right?"

She finally turned her head to look up at him and grinned. "Yeah, we did."

They went back to swaying slowly when he noticed that the song was over and Ally had finally stopped acting like a hyperactive puppy.

"Can we get you home now?" he asked, whispering into her ear. He was afraid she wouldn't be able to hear over the loud music, but he saw her nod her head. He grabbed her hand and pushed around the crowd, leading them to the exit.

* * *

February in Miami wasn't all that different from June in Miami, but there was a slight chill in the night air. It felt nice to escape from the hot and packed club. Even though it was almost two in the morning, downtown Miami was still in full swing. Leading them to a taxi stand, Austin hailed a cab.

After settling into their seats, he was about to give the address to Ally's apartment, when she suddenly stopped him.

"Wait!" She was digging through her purse. "I can't find my keys!"

It figured that even drunk-Ally would notice if she lost something.

"Did you have them with you when we got here?"

"I-I can't remember," she replied, trying to wrack her memory. "Maybe I left them at Trish's place? Or yours before we left?"

"Uh, excuse me," the cab driver piped up, "the meter's running. Where to?"

Instead of asking Ally where she wanted to go, Austin gave the driver his address. "Just stay at my place tonight. I don't really want you to be alone either after drinking so much."

"But I'm fine!" she insisted.

"Ally, you can barely stand up by yourself. Just stay with me tonight."

She rolled her eyes at his overprotectiveness, but didn't argue any further. They rode in silence, but, now that she was sitting down, Ally realized just how tired she was. She closed her eyes and rested her head on the windowpane when she felt Austin wordlessly move her head so it was resting on his shoulder. She settled into his side and mumbled out a thank you before drifting off to sleep.

* * *

When Ally woke up, Austin was shaking her slightly.

"Ally? Ally? We're here." She blinked a few times, were vision suddenly blurry. "Come on, let's head up." He grabbed her hand with one of his own and settled the other around her waist so he could help her walk.

The trip from the cab to the front entrance, then to the elevator, and finally to his apartment was silent. Once they were inside, he kicked the door shut with his foot, and sat Ally on his sofa where she promptly lied down.

"How about I get you some water, then you can go to sleep." He was about to walk to his kitchen, when he heard Ally sleepily call his name.

"Austin."

"Yeah? Did you need something?"

She patted the seat by her head with her eyes closed. "Sit with me."

He was beginning to get used to drunk-Ally's random demands. He was about to ignore her and head into the kitchen, but changed his mind at the last second and took a seat on the sofa by her head. Ally proceeded to make an effort to drag her body up the length of the couch a bit so she could rest her head in his lap.

"Sing for me."

Austin chuckled slightly. "You know, drunk-Ally is pretty bossy." He laughed again when she swatted at his thigh, but he finally gave in to her demand and began to sing softly.

"_Stop hiding out in the shadows_

_Scared to show the world you exist._

_Don't lock yourself in the darkness,_

_The world is so much brighter than this._

_Yeah, if you never take a shot you're never gonna win_

_So turn it all around,_

_And break down the walls whoa,"_

Austin noticed with a start that Ally had begun singing the chorus with him.

"_Don't be afraid to let them fall._

_Break down the walls whoa,_

_And you can dare to have it all._

_Come on and give it everything you can,_

_Take a chance, make a stand_

_And break, break, break down the walls."_

The finished the chorus in perfect harmony, just like that late night six years ago when they wrote it.

"That was the first song we wrote together." Ally's voice was quiet, but he could hear the smile in her voice.

"Yeah," he said, absentmindedly twirling her curls around his fingers, "that's probably the best thing that ever happened to me." He grinned at the memory. The mini dance party, the Chinese takeout, all the crumpled up sheet music, falling asleep on the counter and Ally crashing the cymbals in his ear, feeling nervous when their hands accidentally brushed against each other while playing the piano. He looked down at Ally and realized that he still got that nervous feeling around her. Even now with her head in his lap, he could feel is heart beating faster.

For the next few minutes she stayed silent. Austin figured she had fallen asleep, so he was slightly startled when her voice piped up again.

"Why didn't you ask me to prom?"

Austin was quiet for a moment, his mind trying to register what she had just asked. Finally, he answered, "I didn't know you wanted me to."

"Did you want to ask me?"

He turned the different ways he could answer her question in his head. He could lie, but he had always hated lying to Ally. He could tell the truth, but then things might become weird between them. Then again, she was pretty drunk. He doubted she'd remember anything that happened after she took her first drink.

"Yeah, I did."

"Then why didn't you?"

He sighed audibly. "Because I was worried you wouldn't feel the same way. I was afraid you were going to turn me down. So I asked Rachel because I knew she'd say yes."

Ally clumsily pushed herself off his lap, sitting up so she was facing him. He met her make-up smudged eyes. "Hypocrite."

"_What?"_

"The song," she said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. When the only response he gave her was a confused look, she rolled her eyes before beginning to explain. "The song! _'Give it everything you can, take a chance, make a stand, and break down the walls.' _The song says that you should take a chance, but you're a hypocrite. You just did what was safe."

Austin stared at her, flabbergasted. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, not able to think of anything to say. Finally he stuttered out, "I-I am _not_ a hypocrite." He tried to convince himself his voice wasn't as feeble as it sounded.

"Really? Then why didn't you just go for it and ask me? Actually, if you wanted to go out with me why didn't you just ask me on a date?"

"Ally-"

"Do you like me?" she asked suddenly.

They had been staring at each other since she had sat up, but Austin suddenly couldn't look her in the eye. "You're drunk. You don't know what you're saying."

"Yes, I do! I'm asking you if you like me!"

"But you're probably not even going to remember this in the morning!"

"So what? I just want you to be honest with me, Austin. I can't keep trying to figure out if you have feelings for me or not! And I'm not brave enough to do this when I'm sober, so I'm asking you now!"

"Ally, you're drunk," he repeated. "For all I know, everything you're saying right now is just something you've made up in your head! I-"

"Austin," she interrupted, her voice was soft again, "just tell me the truth."

He turned his head back to face her. Her eyes were pleading, and for a moment he thought he saw Ally, not drunk-Ally, just normal, regular-Ally, behind her cloudy eyes.

"The truth?" he asked tentatively. "The truth is that I think I'm in love with you." Saying it out loud gave him a rush of relief and exhilaration. But he was mostly terrified. "I think I've been in love with you since high school. And sometimes it hurts to be around you and to like you this much. But I didn't want to ruin this. Ruin us and our career and our friendship. There's always been so much on the line, and I was afraid that if I said something it would change everything. And it might've hurt to like you so much, but I would rather have you as a friend than not have you with me at all. And maybe you won't remember anything I'm telling you right now, but-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Ally leaned forward and pressed her lips against his. His eyes widened in shock and for a moment he sat frozen. Finally his motor skills kicked back into gear and he closed his eyes while his hands rested on her hips. Ally weaved her fingers into his hair, pulling him closer to her. The kiss was slow, and the only thought Austin could recognize in the back of his mind was how he wanted this to last forever. Then he realized he was kissing his best friend, and pulled away.

"Ally-"

"I know, I know. I'm drunk," she interrupted again, her voice breathless, "but I'm not making any of this up. I asked if you liked me because I think I might be in love with you too."

"Really?"

"Really. You know you can be really dense sometimes," she said, laughing. "I've probably liked you for the longest time. I thought it was so obvious, but you didn't have a clue." Then she smiled at him, suddenly turning shy. "But I couldn't keep waiting for you to realize. So I guess I found the courage to do it now." He gave her a pointed look and she shrugged sheepishly, "Okay, well maybe I found some liquid courage, but I've wanted to tell you for a while now. And I promise that I'll still remember in the morning."

Austin gave her a skeptical look. "But what if you don't?"

She grinned at him. "Then you can remind me all over again."

* * *

Bright Miami sunshine streamed through the large windows of Austin's living room, offending Ally's sensitive eyes. She groaned at the bright light and the pounding in her head. She quickly took in her surroundings and realized she was lying on the sofa, a blanket wrapped around her. She also realized that she was still in her party dress from last night, but the pins that were in her hair were in a pile on the coffee table and her shoes were laying precariously on the floor by the sofa.

Clearing her dry throat, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and when she took her hands away from her face, she saw that makeup was smudged all over them. She groaned again. Looking around the apartment, she couldn't find Austin anywhere and was about to lay down and go back to sleep when she heard whistling coming from the bathroom.

A chipper-looking Austin came out from the bathroom whistling the melody of _Break Down the Walls_, his hair wet and matted down from taking a shower. When he saw that Ally was awake he smiled and took a seat next to her.

"Good morning. You're finally up."

She laid back down, pulling the blanket over her head. "I feel like I'm dying." Her voice was muffled underneath the blanket.

Austin laughed. "No, but you're _very_ hungover."

Ally pulled the covers down a bit so her eyes and nose peeked out. "What happened last night?" She caught a slightly sad look cross over Austin's face and immediately jumped to conclusions. "Oh, God. Did I do something to embarrass myself?"

He gave her a soft smile. "No, you didn't embarrass yourself. You couldn't find your keys, so I told you to stay here for the night. We fell asleep on the couch." Ally nodded in response. "But, uh-can you remember anything from last night?"

She knit her eyebrows together, but making the effort to think hurt her head all over again. "I remember getting to the club, and taking my first shot." She grimaced at the memory. "And I remember dancing. A _lot_. No wonder my feet are killing me." She screwed up her face in concentration. "And I remember you got really angry at some guy. Did you get into a fight?" she asked, worried her inebriated state led to a confrontation between Austin and a stranger.

He shook his head. "Nope. But I did yell at some guy that was dancing a little too close to you."

"Oh," she replied, embarrased by something she couldn't even remember. "Thanks."

"It was nothing." He waved a hand at her nonchalantly. He was silent for a beat, then he asked, "So, you can't remember anything else?"

Ally got up, wrapping the blanket around her bare shoulders. "I don't think so." She looked at him then, a flash of something from her memory coming to mind. "Did... did you perform last night? Because I think I remember you were singing, except it's weird because I was singing with you. But I still can't perform in front of people." A scary thought dawned on her. "Unless I started to sing while I was drunk! Oh, God, please tell me that didn't happen!" Her hands came up to cover her face. She could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks.

Austin snorted at her horrified reaction. "I promise you didn't sing in front of an audience last night." He watched her breathe out a sigh of relief. "But when we came back here, you asked me to sing for you, then you started to sing with me."

"Oh," she repeated, puzzled by her off behavior. "What were we singing?"

"_Break Down the Walls."_

Suddenly, she could hear the lyrics blaring in the back of her mind.

_"Come on and give it everything you can,_

_Take a chance, make a stand_

_And break, break, break down the walls."_

_"That was the first song we wrote together."_

_"Yeah, that's probably the best thing that ever happened to me."_

Coming out of her reverie, Ally gasped, finally able to remember what happened at the end of the night. "Oh. My. God." She covered her face with her hands again, the heat from her cheeks pulsing against her palms.

"So, I'm guessing you remember now?"

"Oh my God. _Oh my God!" _She covered her face with the blanket in a feeble attempt to hide from him, repeating the words over and over.

"You know," Austin began, "I'd feel a lot better if you'd stopped saying that." His tone was teasing, but the poorly disguised worry was evident in his voice.

"Austin," she pulled the covers from her face, but she couldn't meet his eyes. "I am _so _sorry!"

"Ally, do you remember _everything_ that happened?"

"I basically threw myself at you!" she exclaimed, thoroughly horrified. "I threw myself at you, and I told you I think I'm in love with you! And, oh my God, I was a mess! A terrible, drunk, totally insane mess!"

Despite her mortification, Austin couldn't help but laugh. He pulled her hands away from her face. "Hey," he said softly, "think again. What else do you remember?"

"I remember being totally stupid," she replied dejectedly.

"No. What did _I_ say?"

She wracked her memory, thinking hard for a moment before saying slowly, "You said that you might be in love with me too."

He nodded at her, a smile slowly spreading across his face. "Yeah."

"So, I didn't ruin everything after what I did last night?"

"Nope," he shook his head, tightening his grasp on her hands encouragingly. "Actually, I think you made things a lot better."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I think it was about time we told each other how we felt. You were just able to take the chance earlier than I could."

"That doesn't sound anything like me." A half smile made its way onto her lips.

"Well," he gave her a sly smile, "if you can't remember, you told me to remind you all over again."

She finally gave him a real smile too, feeling the dread from before lift away. "Really?" she asked coyly. "Because I think my memory is going a bit fuzzy."

"I did promise to remind you," he said, his tone one of mock-seriousness.

Ally grinned wider. "Well, a promise is a promise."

The pair leaned in, meeting each other halfway. Whatever she felt when she had kissed him while she was intoxicated was magnified a hundred times as she kissed him now. Her arms curled around his neck, while his circled her waist, pulling her flush against him. He moved so he was lying back on the sofa with Ally on top of him, but just as the they were deepening the kiss, Austin felt something prick him in the small of his back. He let out a surprised yelp as a sharp pain shot up his spine.

"_Ow!"_

"Oh, gosh, are you okay? Did I hurt you?" she asked worriedly.

Through the pain, he let out a small laugh. "No, no, it wasn't you. I think there's something lodged between the couch cushions."

She pushed herself off of him. "Maybe we can pick up where we left off later? You know, after I brush my teeth and take an aspirin." She shrugged sheepishly.

"That sounds like a good idea." Giving him one last smile and a light peck on the lips before finally standing up from the sofa. She was about to head into the bathroom, when his voice stopped her. "And Ally?"

"Yeah?"

He pulled a keychain out from under his back. "I think I found your keys."

* * *

**AN: Hmm... I don't know how I feel about this. This story is a result of random plot bunnies and some leftover Auslly fangirling that I had to get out of my system. But I'm not really sure if I like how it turned out. I feel like it could've been a lot better. Let me know what you think?**

**I hope you enjoyed this. Reviews are welcome and appreciated!**

**xoxo Cherie**


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